07/05/07: Conned again

In just a couple hours, I'll be off to another SF convention: Readercon. This will be my fourth time at this convention (my two previous con reports can be read here and here), but it's been quite a while since my last one, so there should be a good sparkle of the new. And Laura Quilter and I will be sharing a room again -- fun!

The schedule has been posted on the web site, so I've been thinking a bit about what I want to attend. The Maureen McHugh kaffeeklatsch is a no-brainer; Rosemary Kirstein is tempting, too (not least so I can ask her when the next Steerswoman book is coming out). Turns out Laura is on a panel, too: "What's On Your Bookshelf?: LibraryThing" which I feel a strong inclination to go to, being a Librarythinger myself. Though "Fantasy as Inner Landscape", scheduled against it, is very tempting as well. (I've been thinking a lot about the "a few special people decide the fate of the world" trope in fantasy lately as I read Laurie Marks's Elemental Logic series.) Some panels promise to be quite heated and controversial: "The Slipstream / Fabulation / Magic Realism Canon" -- because there's no clear agreement about what slipstream IS, and some people don't think it's a meaningful label, let alone something that can be summed up in a "canon"; "The Singularity Needs Women!" -- because it seems to float the possibility that this entire subgenre is sexist; and "Hunted Jaguars: Fiction In Another Land" -- because, judging from the panel description, no one on the panel seems to have a clue about the cultural appropriation controversies that have been raging throughout fandom for the last year.

There are a couple of film panels that are also intriguing. Then there's the traditional Kirk Poland Memorial Bad Prose Competition, which always makes me bust a gut laughing; author book signings; and various parties that may or may not be serving alcohol (the hotel's rules about this seem draconian in comparison to the Concourse in Madison). In short, lots of fun things to do! Look for a report after I return.

A final note: I've been writing enough of these posts lately that I've created a new category for them: Fandom.